Dive Brief:

• Albertsons announced Wednesday a new partnership with technology company Capgemini that will equip the grocer’s retail media arm with intelligent process automation and generative artificial intelligence.
• This tie-up aims to provide Albertsons Media Collective with insights to bolster media planning, media operations and content creation. 
• Generative AI is gaining adoption across the grocery industry and is a tool experts expect to become more common throughout this year. 

Dive Insight:

Capgemini’s intelligent progress automation utilizes robotic process automation (RPA), generative AI and smart analytics to offer Albertsons Media Collective end-to-end insights aimed at bolstering its media operation model, streamlining workflows and enhancing campaign performance for brands and agencies, according to the emailed press release. 

Albertsons’ retail media network could achieve a 20% faster speed to market by integrating Capgemini’s technology, offering real-time creative optimization and automating operations for media planning as well as allowing employees to focus on higher level tasks. The grocer’s CPG and brand partners will also be presented with greater flexibility, efficiencies and campaign performance, per the announcement. 

“The advertising industry is ripe with potential to integrate AI, and we see a massive opportunity to leverage process automation to streamline our workflows, drive enhanced campaign performance and accelerate speed to market,” Kristi Argyilan, senior vice president of retail media for Albertsons Media Collective, said in a statement.

Generative AI continues to capture grocers’ attention as industry experts anticipate the technology becoming more mainstream throughout this year. In a recent interview, Bobby Gibbs, partner in Oliver Wyman’s Retail & Consumer Goods team, predicted generative AI will become more integrated into grocer’s apps and websites to offer a more personalized experience for shoppers — a key component in building out retail media.

Albertsons is not the only company to implement AI technology. In May, The Fresh Market, along with technology company Firework, announced the beta release of what they claimed to be the first-ever generative AI live shopping solution, enabling the specialty grocer’s customers to use the in-video chat feature on an ongoing, on-demand basis after a livestream ends. 

This is Albertsons’ second retail media announcement this week, furthering the grocery company’s continued influence and work in the growing space.